"v^ s^ S.*- 



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ADDRESS 



delivi;rep at the opening of 






THE STUYVESANT INSTITUTE 



CITY OF NEW-YORK, 



4th NOVBMBER, 1837, 



/ 



SAMUEL WARD, Junior 




NEW-YORK : 

PUBLrSHKn BY THE STUYVESANT INSTITUTE. 
Geo. K. Hopkins fc Son, Printers. 

1837. 




pmK= 



M 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF 



THE STUYVESANT INSTITUTE 



CITY OF NEW-YORK, 



4th NOVEMBER, 1837, 




SAMUEL WARD, Junior 



NEW-YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY THE STUYVESANT INSTITUTE. 

Geo. F. Hopkins & Son, Printers. 

1837. 






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^ ^ ^ ^n ^ ^ 



— »*^^/•*^♦<^^.^•#^^*-^>~ 



GENTLEMEN OF THE STUYVESANT INSTITUTE : 

We are assembled to dedicate these Halls to 
Science ; and you have chosen to represent you, 
on this interesting occasion, one better fitted to 
swing an ardent censer at the shrine of their tute- 
lar deity than to officiate in the more dignified 
rites of an opening ceremony. To the deep sense 
of an unexpected honour are joined in my bosom 
emotions of pride that there should have been 
erected in this city, by the voluntary oflferings of 
its prosperous inhabitants, another edifice destined 
to combine the materials with the opportunities of 
human enlightenment. 

I rejoice at the construction of this fabric, 
because, in the perseverance and confidence by 
which from a slender beginning, and throughout 
times most unpropitious, it has been accom- 

1 



plished, may be seen the elements of that increas- 
ing strength, and the germ of that enduring vitality 
by which an institution continues to thrive long 
after its generous founders have ceased to enter 
its portals. Such an edifice may be viewed as a 
monument ; and, gentlemen, by monuments in some 
degree, after centuries have elapsed, may be tra- 
ced, the legend of a nation's greatness, its arts, 
its letters, and its civilization. 

From the earliest ages, conscious of a perishable 
existence, man has striven to perpetuate in marble 
or on canvass the remembrance of great events. 
It was easier to impress the images of these upon 
the material world, than to immortalize them in 
song or story. The temple and the triumphal 
arch once erected, — a statue was placed in the 
niche of the one, and a name, the deed and the 
day, were inscribed upon the face of the other. 
Then, a thousand lyres sang pceans to the god, 
and deified the hero. Centuries pass on, and 
history rebuilds the temple, and substitutes itself 
for the monument. 



The old world is filled with such memorials of 
by-gone grandeur, — from the Colossal enigmas of 
the land of the Ptolemies to the classic models of 
a later day ; from the unrivalled temples of ancient 
Greece, to those cloud-capt cathedrals of the 
middle ages, where the richly embroidered exte- 
rior, and the paintings that tapestry the inner 
walls, testify to the fervour of a piety that in our 
day has assumed a new and less ostentatious form ; 
and from the triumphal arch of Trajan at Rome, 
to that stupendous structure commemorative of 
modern pride, which, recently completed by ac- 
clamation in the capitol of France, seems only 
the funeral pyre of the armies whose victories 
it records.* 

But intellectual greatness requires no material 
mementos of its power, which is rather of to- 
morrow, than of yesterday. The name that con- 
secrates the groves of Academe awakens a far 
nobler train of thought than do the grandest 

* The arc de triomplie de PEtoile. 



monuments of antiquity. The one proclaims the 
lofty career of man, and fills the soul with hope 
and with a consciousness of its destiny, while the 
others remind us of our physical insignificance, 
and tell us the inevitable doom of humanity. But, 
besides the debt of reverence due from us to the 
sages of the past, for their legacies of wisdom 
and of science, we are bound to increase the 
hereditary stock, and to hand down to posterity 
proportionate claims to its gratitude and esteem. 
For this purpose we need build neither pyramid 
nor triumphal arch ; — in the spacious and service- 
able edifice around us, and in the desire for the 
advancement of learning its erection indicates, 
are the happiest evidences that we are at length 
preparing to discharge our obligation. 

If the short but eventful period the annals of our 
country embrace, exhibit few contributions to the 
general stock of knowledge, and if no other than the 
science of practical education has hitherto almost 
solely engrossed our attention, it is that we are the 
children of but one generation, — of a generation. 



which, having laid, in the broad principles of human 
liberty, the foundations of our political edifice, 
has bequeathed to its posterity the grateful task 
of crowning the work so begun, with a superstruc- 
ture of social virtues, cemented, fortified, and 
adorned by justice, by science, and by art. To 
the old world, we have given in exchange for the 
first materials of civilization, the produce of our 
soil, and the inventions to which its culture and 
vast extent have given birth. There arc, indeed, 
illustrious examples among us of a similar return 
in literature and in science, for the intellectual 
blessings we have received at its hands ; but these 
are scattered sparsely throughout our land, and 
seem to await a bond of union to connect them 
in one compact body, when the sympathies of the 
whole, aspiring to the higher dignities of intelli- 
gence, shall create a medium for the transmission 
of its great results. If science and letters are in- 
dispensable to the moral grandeur of a nation, (and 
that they are who can doubt ?) it is the duty of the 
enlightened, not only to hail their advent, but to 
prepare the way for their reception. In this, all 



may and should be instrumental; both the rising 
generation, and those by whose authority and 
counsel, they are swayed and guided. The for- 
mer, readily incited, are dependent upon the latter 
for opportunity. They should not depend in vain. 

If, however, those inclined to literature, or en- 
dowed with the zeal and patient industry by which 
alone the domain of science can be enriched, have 
no other resource, they can at least emulate the 
independent spirit of their forefathers — emanci- 
pate themselves from the influence of the universal 
pursuit, — the sacra fames of gain, and strike out 
boldly in a path, rugged at the out-set, but by pur- 
suing which, they may reap the laurels and the 
emoluments of fame. Seldom in the most righte- 
ous cause, do individuals venture singly to en- 
counter the prejudices of the mass ; but the rally- 
ing of a few around the banner of letters soon 
collects followers and commands respect. It re- 
quires more virtue to immolate avarice to learning 
than to pursue an ancestral calling; and science 
once dignified with the attributes of an indepen- 



dent vocation, the many will be the first to patronize 
and to appreciate it. In some countries of Europe, 
a pursuit is handed down like a title of nobility ; 
each succeeding generation adding its quarter to 
the hereditary escutcheon. Even the executioner 
arrogates to himself dignity from his forefathers 
of the axe. In this manner, certain castes have 
been preserved, and the objects of each graduated 
by its position in the social scale. With us, how- 
ever, whilst the children of the less wealthy naturally 
aspire to an independence, it is often the sole object 
of those who inherit this to swell it to opulence. 

The mines of commercial wealth being equally 
accessible to all, the wisdom which developed 
them should now point out some higher goal to 
those abundantly rich, else we may fall victims, 
as was but yesterday our danger, to the luxuries 
and consequent vices that spring up from wealth, 
unaccompanied by intellectual refinement — and 
thus decay, as a people, like the great republics 
of old, before we shall have ripened into the full 
maturity of a nation. 



To counteract this, we should cherish an ar- 
dent love for science in the abstract, as in the 
application ; we should nurture the offsprings of a 
nascent literature ; and we should honour the phi- 
losopher and love the poet in the same degree as 
we appreciate the historian, and venerate the law- 
giver. Gliding years will soon bereave us of those 
more muscular mental faculties that commerce 
exercises; and then, conscious of an error, we may 
be removed from its causes by too wide an inter- 
val even to ascertain — m^uch less counteract them. 
Let us then anticipate and provide against an evil 
it may be hereafter too late to remedy, by accord- 
ing to the votaries of literature and of science, a 
sympathy which, while it penetrates as a sunbeam 
the cheerless closet of the student, illumining the 
abstruse page, and warming the heart, inspires him 
with fresh energy to pursue his vocation without 
unfitting him, as some vainly imagine, for the emer- 
gencies of life. There are instances where the 
philosopher and the poet leaving their respective 
spheres, have assumed with courage the defence 
of State. Archimedes protected Syracuse, and 



TYRTiEus led the Lacedemonians to victory ; while, 
in our day, Fichte the transcendentalist, and 
KoRNER the poet, were first among the patriots 
who, in Germany, resisted the French invasion, 
and a Franklin, a Humboldt and a Lindenau 
have shone brightly in the councils of State. 

And how are we to further this so desirable 
advancement of learning ? Not by national endow- 
ments, which, however desirable in themselves, 
are at variance with the spirit of our institutions. 
Not by state patronage, which has in some cases 
proved inadequate to the requirements of a most 
important profession. But by association, by 
the joint efforts of the prosperous, and the educa- 
ted, — efforts in which each individual may happily 
lend essential aid towards improving the actual 
and prospective welfare of the whole. Let socie- 
ties be formed after the plan of the states which 
compose our confederacy ; and, as these acquire 
power, they will become telegraphic points for 
the interchange and diffusion of great and new 
truths in science, in letters or in polity. Exerci- 

2 



10 



sing a wholesome influence in their respective 
locahties, they will afford protection and resources 
to the meritorious and the aspiring, and thus gra- 
dually render abstract learning independent of the 
absorbing cares of life, and assign to it its true 
value in the eyes of men. Such bodies will con- 
stitute one great confederation of letters, each 
representing its own peculiarities and special 
tendencies, while in the union of all there will be 
glory and utility. 

The present association is then conceived in 
the truest spirit of our institutions. With increas- 
ing means, an extensive library, and the apparatus 
of philosophical experiment it will afford facili- 
ties to the student and to the lecturer, while, 
through the medium of public courses, those dis- 
posed to cultivate and to contribute to intellectual 
advancement, may learn and appreciate the modes 
by which this is accomplished. That these re- 
sources should be augmented, and that results so 
desirable should be attained, depend solely upon 
the numbers impelled to pursue or to embellish the 



11 



higher walks of intelhgence. First and foremost 
among the members of this community stands the 
hberal and enhghtened merchant. His example 
is the precept of the rising generation — it renders 
custom a law, and gives its bias to public opinion. 
The wealthy and intelligent representatives of 
European commerce, have been recently destined 
to take an important part in the troubles as in 
the prosperities of the old world. Lafitte and 
Casimir Perier, — the one immolating himself 
to the revolution of July, and the other sacrificing 
in turn the revolution to the permanent tranquility 
of France, — are striking illustrations of the in- 
fluence of commerce, while despotic governments 
owning the supremacy of a Rothschild, testify 
to the power of mercantile industry over the 
welfare of society. With us, setting aside the 
political emergencies, to meet which, the energies 
of the merchant are ever at the service of his 
country, and the financial embarrassments, where, 
in extricating himself he has displayed equal skill 
and integrity — the mercantile interests hereto- 
fore personifying one huge and unexampled pros- 



12 



perity, may, in like manner, henceforth, represent 
one vast and aspiring intelligence. Though called 
for in the active defence of state, and though 
paralyzed for the present in the effort to create a 
standard by which enterprise shall be regulated — 
the exertions of the merchant may still effect a 
revolution in the cause of American letters — thus 
sowing seed which shall spring up and bear whole- 
some fruits alike in the successes or the reverses 
of the future, and founding those institutions which 
alone are wanting to render us the equal of Europe 
in thought and word, as we are now in action. 
This fulfilling, the world may contemplate a novel 
and glorious spectacle — the civilised representa- 
tives of the human race — aiming at the same 
magnificent result — the elevation of mankind — 
the inhabitants of the new worlds using their best 
energies to become as enlightened as they are free, 
and their transatlantic brethren striving with Jcindred 
vigour to become as free as they are enlightened. 

There is certainly a sufficient reason for our 
hitherto comparatively slight advancement in the 



13 



higher walks of mind, in the numerous wants of 
a recent settlement, and in the requirements of an 
unprovided people. The necessities of physical 
man, must be supplied, ere we look for those 
refinements of intellect, which are the concomi- 
tants of ease and wealth. Science, although it 
claims to be the expounder of nature, does not 
begin to exert its full sway over a people, until art 
has provided them with the means, and placed 
them in a condition of at least temporary inde- 
pendence. This once ensured, a duty which, 
until then, has been alike imperative with all, now 
devolves upon government. Legislation enacts 
the wise laws which encourage industry, by en- 
hancing its fruits; and intelligence stepping forth 
from the ranks, devises the means of their educa- 
tion. The intellect of a nation has first to mount 
a steep ascent over obstacles, frequent, and at 
times, apparently insurmountable, having in view 
a circumscribed object, as the goal of its desires. 
Reaching that, it soon finds before it vast fields of 
truth to be explored, far beyond its former con- 
ceptions. Like the curious traveller, who fixes on 



14 



some great elevation as an object to be attained, 
and who, in his attempt, chmbs the rugged chfF or 
mouldering precipice, trembling beneath his step, 
and after his toil and danger discovers nothing on 
the height itself but a spot, from whence, to view 
the broad expanse, the variety and the beauty, the 
far-stretched territory, and the illimitable streams 
of the land he has left, and then, for the first time, 
perceives the grandeur of nature, and feels the 
divinity within prompting him to further research. 

In the story of our past, little then will be found 
to discourage the hopes I have ventured to put 
forth ; and in our present condition, and the pros- 
pect before us, we may also see, that upon the 
government of this country has devolved a suffi- 
ciently responsible task. The work of intellec- 
tual improvement is, therefore, to be achieved like 
every great and good work hitherto accomplished 
among us by all. In turning to the page of history, 
we find republican Athens originating science, 
letters and art, of which the perfection has been 
handed down, through succeeding ages, with the 



15 



traditions of ancient heroism — while erudite Alex- 
andria, under the patronage of the Ptolemies, 
strove in vain to equal the productions of unfet- 
tered Attic genius. Does not this evince the 
extent to which science and letters may flourish 
beneath the sunshine of liberty ? Again, in the 
Florentine annals, we learn of the revival of art 
and of letters effected by the genius, the taste, and 
the liberality of a family of merchants — the Me- 
dici, Does not this again prove how materially 
and how nobly the merchant may contribute to 
refine the taste and to elevate the intelligence of 
his country ? 

When speaking of the merchant, I would not 
exclude as subjects of the same remarks, those 
who are not directly engaged in mercantile pur- 
suits, and yet who constitute parts of the same 
community. It may be allowed to give the word 
a more extended meaning, on the present occasion, 
than a correct etymology would imply. The At- 
lantic States of this great confederacy may be con 
sidered a country of merchants. The mechanic, 



16 



who gives form, solidity and capability to the argosy, 
or who rears the spacious warehouse that receives 
its treasures — the capatihst, who lends the gains 
which a life of industry, frugality, and prudent 
management has amassed, to the use of the more 
enterprising — the jurist who expounds the law, or 
who contributes the light of the knowledge ob- 
tained by persevering study, and careful observa- 
tion to reveal the path of justice and equity, dark- 
ened by the conflicting interests, and complicated 
circumstances of trade — in short, all who labour 
for that individual independence which is the 
surest basis of civil liberty, form each as essential 
a constituent of the great commercial family, as 
he who consigns his products or imports his mer- 
chandise. And the numerous instances about us 
of individual aggrandizement, in all of these pur- 
suits, are so many proofs that in each it may be 
attained, and is in all attributable to the advan- 
tages of commerce. 

From the present aspect of Europe, and a 
glance at the actual and previous condition of 



17 



science and letters, as endowed and cultivated 
there, we may derive an instructive lesson. The 
phenomenon by which, despite their peculiarities, 
so many races of divers character, and actuated 
by conflicting interests, live, with a solitary excep- 
tion, in real and prospective peace at home and 
abroad, may, in a measure, be accounted for by 
the progress of refined letters, of elevated science, 
and by the immediate influence of the latter, in 
perfecting the arts of life. Akin to the piety 
which inspires His servants in different portions 
of the globe, to worship one Creator, is the de- 
votion of its votaries to one learning. Unam- 
bitious of worldly distinctions, and soaring above 
the vices and passions that degrade our race ; the 
knee which they refuse to bend to power or to 
fortune, they, like the Persian, bend to the sun 
that illumines and fructifies the mind. Honoured 
and esteemed as well for their devotion as for its 
object, they are the chosen High Priests of learn- 
ing who instruct the crowd, and impart the myste- 
ries of science to those destined to perpetuate 
discovery. 

3 



18 



Witness the results. The great engine of 
modern science, the calculus of Newton and of 
Leibnitz, which, at its birth, was possessed by 
those master spirits only, has since become diffused 
even as the wealth, that in days of yore, placed the 
destinies of a nation in the hands of its sovereign, 
is now the property of all ranks. And as the 
latter distributed among the masses, has endowed 
them with the means of ameliorating their own 
welfare, so has the former originated a thousand 
minor inventions, steps by which, as by a ladder, 
it has become the privilege of all to ascend to the 
higher regions of knowledge. From science, to 
its applications, the transition is necessary and 
simple; and art, of which it was erst the hand- 
maiden, has thus become its messenger to men. 

And how, gentlemen, has this been accomplish- 
ed? — By association. I will not here attempt to 
show whether or no societies originate inventions ; 
it is sufficient that they preserve discovery, that 
they engender taste, foster science, hold out the 
incitements which develop e latent talent, and check 



19 



retrogression. In fine, that they are the Hbraries 
which enfold, and the hbrarians who reveal the 
achievements of the dead — the Areopagites whose 
decision establishes the claims of the living. 

We see, then, how disciples congregated around 
the apostle of science, as around an intellectual 
nucleus. Leibnitz, under the sanction of the first 
Frederick, founds and presides over the academy of 
Berlin and Euler, is summoned by Catherine to 
direct and enrich with his learning a similar asso- 
ciation in the Russian capital. Sir Isaac Newton 
is elected President of the Royal Society, which 
early knew and appreciated his genius, and La- 
grange, subsequently organises at Turin, a learned 
body, which is still a living testimony to the vigour 
of the talent, from which it received its initial 
impulse. Its votaries thus disciplined into corps, 
the objects of science became distributed. Here 
do we see the germ of that departition of intellec- 
tual pursuits, which, like the division of labour in 
manufactures, has achieved the greatest and most 
beneficial results. Soon, memoirs of the transac- 



20 



tions of each scientific body enlighten its sister 
associations and communicate great results to a 
surprised and delighted world. The simplest 
branch of human inquiry becomes dignified with 
the importance of a science. The student of 
nature learns how to penetrate her secrets, and 
philosophy arranges and classifies discovery. The 
works of buried sages are drawn out from the 
neglected nook, the sublime prophecies of a Bacon 
and a Galileo become fulfilled, and their doctrines 
expanded and appreciated. One universal enthu- 
siasm is enkindled throughout Europe — each in- 
telligent bosom burns to join in the crusade against 
ignorance. Literature and philosophy receive a 
quickening impulse from science, and all are array- 
ed beneath its banners. The pride of governments 
is aroused, and with it, a desire to participate in 
such ovations. To atone for past oppression and 
neglect, kings hasten to exalt the votary, and to 
appreciate the mysteries he unfolds. The higher 
schools of learning are founded and endowed with 
the means of progression, and with privileges 
which render them independent of the troubles of 



21 



state. Thus, gushing from a few primitive sources 
of knowledge, has the placid stream of science 
swollen into a majestic river ; its waters fertilizing 
the soil, and its resistless current affording a thou- 
sand new and living powers to the arts of life. 

With the great effects of these novel impulses 
all present are familiar. The science which took 
origin simultaneously in England and in Germany, 
soon reflected its rays upon the intelligent acade- 
mies of Paris. These became the first to honour 
the illustrious of other nations, and to emulate a 
glorious example. By them prizes were proposed 
for the solution of important emblems in physical 
and analytical science, and numerous voices raised 
in hailing the triumphs of mind and in prayers for 
their continuance, found an echo throughout all 
Europe. Astronomy, the primitive object of human 
research, soon yielded up its secrets to the in- 
quiries of a searching analysis, and the magnifi- 
cent laws of gravitation served to unfold new and 
vast proofs of the creative harmony. 



22 



While a Herschel, a Delambre, and a La- 
place, three talents so eminent, so fertile, yet so 
widely different, mingling thus harmoniously, eleva- 
ted human intelligence to the stars, and enabled it to 
read the title-page of the universe, a like fervour 
impelled others to examine the domains and re- 
sources of a less distant and more mutable nature, 
Cuvier, Humboldt, and Sir Humphrey Davy, 
through the aid and discipline of science, de- 
cyphered the imperfect inscriptions past revolu- 
tions had left in the bosom and on the surface of 
the globe, and by degrees, each one of which, was 
a great discovery, revealed to its inhabitants the 
subtle agents that control the material world. 
" Nature and science, " says Cuvier, " may be re- 
presented as two vast pictures, of which one 
should be a copy of the other. Each is partitioned 
into an infinite number of compartments which 
though appropriated to themselves by different 
orders of Savans^ constitute, nevertheless, one and 
the same system. But in the picture nature pre- 
sents, each partition is full, and all are linked to- 
gether, while in the imitative canvass of man, 



23 



many are entirely empty, and others display in- 
correct images which have, at most, a rude resem- 
blance to the original ; in fine, it must be acknowl- 
edged, that all the efforts of those who have 
cultivated the sciences, have tended to reproduce 
with fidelity a small number only of the designs, 
shadowed forth by the immense and sublime union 
of natural existences," Thus astronomy, in which 
may be traced the first and most perfect afiiliation 
of the practical with the theoretical, has out- 
distanced its sister branches of scientific discovery. 
In it reason and analysis have supplanted the lenses, 
and calculations of a wondrous, yet imperfect art ; 
and its portion in the great image of nature is, 
comparatively, full and perfect. 

I have cited the present perfection in astronomy, 
both to show how much is wanting to render other 
departments of science as complete, and because 
the magnificent results obtained by celestial me- 
chanics are alone an encouraging guarantee for 
the future. They are an earnest that, sooner or 
later, the minuter mechanism of the world, and the 



24 



springs of universal action must be revealed to us. 
Emblems of the immortal destiny of mind, they 
constitute a lofty poetry of hope, and are the 
irresistible allurements by which man sees mir- 
rored in the past, the fulfilment of a prophecy, the 
creative artifice by which he is enticed to prose- 
cute, with untiring ardour, the inquiries of the 
future. The history of astronomy shows that its 
prodigious advancement may, in a measure, be at- 
tributed to the period of time during which it has 
lived and flourished — that of its progress alone, 
fills six quarto volumes, and presents an array of 
names unequalled in numbers and in splendour in 
the annals of any other science. By it is afforded 
a surprising proof of the unknown resources which 
the exigencies of discovery may develope. In aid 
of its progress it has created engines which, after 
having laboured with unwearied industry in erect- 
ing the column it occupies in the great temple, have 
been in turn summoned to rear the other portions 
of the edifice. Finally, to astronomy are we in- 
debted for an incontestable proof that our slight 
progress in the science is the result of physical 



25 



causes purely ; for, to an American has been re- 
served the honour of unfolding the mysteries of the 
Mecanique Celeste, and to our illustrious Bowditch 
must henceforth be given a portion of the glory of 
Laplace. 

To enter minutely into the nature and divisions 
of any one of the great philosophical problems of 
our age, would but recall to mind some detached 
science the daily improvements achieved in which, 
are diffused throughout the world by an enlight- 
ened press. The progress of chemistry alone 
during the prese it century, is a subject too vast 
to be grasped within the present hour — what 
then can be said of botany, of geology, of zo- 
ology or of a thousand minor out-shoots from the 
perennial tree of knowledge ? What space have 
we to contemplate the progress of the arts, the 
achievments of Franklin, of Rittenhouse, of 
Fulton, or of Whitney, in our own clime, and of 
Arkwright, of Watt, or of Babbage, in Europe. 
I repeat it, these triumphs of man over matter, are 
the food of our daily meditations. 

4 



26 



The present objects of scientific inquiry, surely 
surpass their predecessors, and are aUke the wonder 
of all. The five imponderable fluids, light, heat, 
electricity, galvanism, and magnetism; the subtle 
spirits of creation, are about being subjected to the 
dominion of man. Like the slaves of the lamp, 
they will soon lead him into caverns whose new 
and vast treasures of knowledge will be revealed 
to his ravished gaze. 

From the contemplation of the universe with an 
unquailing eye, man has received the impress of its 
grandeur. He now turns to microscopic investiga- 
tion. Science has become one universal interro- 
gation of nature, and the magnificent responses of 
recent days fill the inquiring mind, now with doubt, 
and now with conviction; with doubt, lest our 
entire physical knowledge be founded in ignorance 
of first causes, and with the conviction that such 
doubts must ere long be resolved. 

All Europe, partitioned into associations, — 
strengthened by royal and legislative munificence — 



27 



has laboured with one mind for the advancement 
of science. Besides the well organized academies 
of Paris, France founds in her departments ten 
similar institutions, all of which seek diligently at 
home and abroad, new sources of enlightened 
happiness. The Sorbonne,* and the College de 
France,* choose their professors from among the 
young and promising; and these, educated by a 
law of merit in its public schools, in turn reflect 
lustre upon their country. The Polytechnic, the 
school of mines, of arts and trades, and of engi- 
neering, nourish and develope the zeal and talent 
of future explorers in the regions of science or of 
art, and the rewards and dignities of intellectual 
attainments, rival in the state the honours and 
emoluments awarded to military glory. Side by 
side through life in the royal council, the sage and 
the hero are enshrined after death in the same 
tomb,t and the nation inscribes over its lofty porch, 
the dedication of the monument by a grateful 
country to its exalted men.j^ 

* The two Universities of Paris. 

"j" The Pantheon. 

J .^ux grands Hommes la patrie reconnaissante. 



28 



In Germany, enthusiasm has been more inti- 
mately diffused throughout all ranks. The spark 
which kindled its literature into a blaze lit up also 
the torch of science. A Blumenbach, a Gauss, 
and a Humboldt — worthy contemporaries of the 
scholars, the poets, and the philosophers of their 
epoch, — inherited the genius of a Leibnitz and of 
a Euler. The academies of Berlin, of Gottingen, 
of Leipsic, of Munich, and of Vienna, became the 
foci of learning, and their transactions the rendez- 
vous of the wise. Proud to imitate, and happy to 
admire the productions of foreign genius, the Ger- 
man brought into the field of science a patience and 
a research alike unknown to the practical Briton 
and to the refining Gaul. The former employed 
philosophy in aid of invention, and the latter in 
generalizing the principles of science, while the 
German has applied invention and science to phi- 
losophy, and thus found formulae for determining 
the phenomena of an essence far surpassing in its 
mysterious and expansive power, all other won- 
ders of creation — the human mind. 



29 



In England, important results have likewise 
been obtained, less perhaps in science than in art, 
less in theory than in practical invention. Its in- 
stitutions of learning have undergone no essential 
change ; and this may be one of the evil conse- 
quences of its conservatism. The calculating 
machine of Babbage is nevertheless the mechanical 
wonder of our age. Performing computations of 
which the length and intricacy have hitherto re- 
tarded the progress of science, and indelibly re- 
cording and multiplying each result, it has become 
one of the iron fingers of art, and allows a wider 
and more varied range to scientific inquiry. Sen- 
sible, though late, of the advantages of combination 
in the pursuit of learning, and, mayhap, ambitious 
of reviving the intelligent age of Newton^ Barrow, 
Halley, Flamstead, Cotes, and Maclaurin, — the 
learned of England have for six years past, courte- 
ously invited, and hospitably entertained at York, 
at Oxford, at Cambridge, at Edinburgh, at Dublin, 
and at Bristol, the learned of all nations. At this 
annual scientific congress, which is even now in 
session at Liverpool, the proceedings of the past 



30 



year are communicated, the rate of progression as- 
certained, and the objects of immediate, as well as 
remote future inquiry laid down and distributed. A 
convocation of German naturalists was recently 
held at Stuttgard, and the French Scientific Associ- 
ation which originally met at Poictiers, was assem- 
bled during the present month at Metz. 

The great schools of the continent are alike open 
to the stranger and to the citizen. At their portals 
science beckons unto all to come and drink of the 
waters of knowledge, and some European govern- 
ments, satisfied that the intelligence of a country, 
like the magnet, acquires fresh vigour from the 
energies it imparts, have endowed the learned with 
salaries which render them independent of the 
pecuniary aid of their disciples. Thus, in Paris, 
may any science be acquired, free of expence to 
its votary. At its universities are taught and illus- 
trated every branch of experimental philosophy, 
of natural and of abstract science, of metaphysics, 
of history, of legislation, and of letters. At the 
king's library free access may be had to the books 



31 V 

that reveal, and the philologists who explain, the 
recondite elements of oriental literature ; and the 
galleries and academies of the fine arts court the 
visits of the amateur, and the studies of the artist. 
To the disciples of Esculapius are opened the 
schools of medicine and the vast and instructive 
hospitals ; and at the Garden of Plants may be 
viewed the cognate natural treasures of the world. 

Within this latter justly renowned enclosure, 
there stands upon an acclivity a lofty and magifi- 
cent cedar of Lebanon. From its summit, years 
of scientific glory contemplate the rich and varied 
surface around. From beneath the salutary shade 
of its wide-spreading branches, may be heard the 
lion's roar, the tiger's yell, and the joyous carol of 
birds of other climes — may be viewed the extensive 
conservatories which enclose the treasures of the 
three kingdoms of nature, and the quiet abodes of 
the accomplished men, who each day draw from 
these, new and eloquent truths — maybe felt the be- 
nign, yet elevating influence of the spot. Calm and 
erect amid the blood-stained victories of the re- 



32 



public, the glories of the empire, the reverses of 
the hundred days, the frailties of the restoration, 
and the troublous times of the last revolution, this 
monarch of the mountain seems an enduring emblem 
of the science which, aspiring to monuments more 
durable than the arch or the column, and heedless 
of the turmoils and vanities of the great metropolis, 
fulfils in this new academe, and by an immutable 
law, its own high destiny. 

While the aspect of the sciences has varied with 
their progress, the modes of effecting this have re- 
mained essentially the same. Each new discovery 
strengthened the sympathies which linked together 
the votaries of science, and enhanced, in their eyes, 
the value of union. But besides the intellectual 
culture attained and diffused by these collective 
efforts, a great moral lesson has thus been silently 
inculcated upon mankind. From appreciating the 
benefits of knowledge, men have proceeded to love 
those who impart it, and hence have arisen in- 
creased deference and respect for age and expe- 
rience. Fresh intensity has been added to the 



33 



social ties, the affections have become fortified, 
and a just sense of gratitude towards God, ac- 
coupled to the ardour of mental improvement. 
This gradual amelioration of individual sentiments 
has spread its kindly influence throughout the 
masses, and science has inspired them with esteem 
and affection for their great benefactors. 

Such, gentlemen, is the inquiring spirit of the age ; 
the same which a German poet has personified as 
Titan, the giant, who, not content with his colossal 
strength, or with having ascertained the laws of 
celestial harmony, now aspires to scale heaven 
itself; and to effect this, heaps mountain upon 
mountain. It has been our fortune to participate 
but slightly in these exploits of modern intelligence. 
We have been occupied in rendering habitable and 
productive the earth around us, and in forming 
institutions suited to the liberties we enjoy. How 
we are hereafter to achieve intellectual triumphs 
which shall worthily succeed our moral victories, is 
an enigma time alone can unravel. But, that such 
is to be our future destiny, seems an unavoidable 

5 



34 



sequel to the gigantic strides of the arts and inven- 
tions among us. Inheriting with the wisdom and 
experience of by-gone centuries, the advantages of 
a common language with England, and of sharing 
in each wholesome impulse of European intelli- 
gence, we now enter upon our career of national 
manhood, with the buoyancy and vigour of youth 
attempered, yet undiminished by past trials. Giving 
to these energies a proper direction, the certainty 
of our future greatness becomes brighter than the 
most gorgeous visions of the imagination. Science, 
whilome the companion of the sage and the hidden 
object of individual devotion, even now seeks 
among us a permanent abode. It has been the 
object of this brief sketch to show that we all are 
hound to welcome her within these walls. 




LiBRftRV OF CONGRESS 



029 944 892 7 f 



